Mahogany Ship inspires sailor to build caravel

Jason Dowling

JUST $20,000, thousands of hours of toil, a stack of spare wood and a knack for woodworking are all it takes to build your own replica 15th century vessel to sail around the world.

Graeme Wylie of Warrnambool has taken seven years to build his 70-tonne caravel, named the Raven, inspired by the legendary Mahogany Ship.

Mystery surrounds the Mahogany Ship, a wreck supposedly sighted in the 1800s in sand dunes west of Warrnambool that could prove that Europeans discovered Australia long before Captain Cook.

"I have grown up in Warrnambool with the legend of the Mahogany Ship so it has always been something that has been of great interest," Mr Wylie said.

"I am also a keen sailor and for many years intended to build a boat, and those two combined with the quantity of timber I had here."

The Mahogany Ship was recorded as being sighted in the sand dunes by a sealing party in 1836, with some believing it could have been the wreck of a Portuguese or Spanish caravel washed up on the shore years before Captain Cook arrived.

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Mr Wylie said his caravel was attracting plenty of interest.

"There is a Portuguese festival down here every second year and they have come out for the past few events and the Mahogany Ship committee has shown interest," he said.

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Mr Wylie's version is a bit easier to find and hundreds have visited his creation since he opened his gates to the public a month ago.

The former furniture maker said his was the only caravel in Australia and one of only a handful around the world.

"This ship, I believe, would be most accurately placed around 1480, but anywhere from 1450 to 1520 was the real main era of the caravel and that was when Europe was first making its real voyages of discovery," he said.

He said the ship was similar in size to Christopher Columbus's caravel Nina, used in his voyages to the Americas.

"Columbus had two caravels and a ship, and of the two caravels, the Nina was his smallest and his favourite one and this is pretty much the same dimensions as the Nina."

The Raven is 21 metres long, six metres wide and 17 metres high. Mr Wylie, 51, plans to sail it with his wife, Felicite, possibly to Africa.

"It's a money-making venture and a lifestyle choice," he said. " It is going to be our caravan, our grey nomad van that we will hopefully be able to sail around and scratch a living from."

He said the boat was made entirely of discarded timber, almost all of it cypress, and 600 litres of tar.

Mr Wylie said he was confident the Raven would float when launched at Port Fairy this time next year. "Cypress is a really light timber. It is so heavily built with cypress that it will float even if it is full of water," he said.

Before he sets sail, the public can visit the Raven on Sundays for a small fee between 11am and 4pm at Mr Wylie's property near Warrnambool.

There are also tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1pm.

Asked why he had decided to build the 15th-century giant, he said: "Because I could, because I realised at some stage I had all the timber, all the equipment, the skills, everything that was required to do it a love of history and of sailing."

For more information contact the Warrnambool Visitor Information Centre.